Bad Reputation
by tearsinhereyes
Summary: No magic/vampires. Set in college. Rose tries to turn her life around but with the new boy in town, Adrian Ivashkov, it's not that easy.
1. The new guy

When I woke up I feel like I haven't slept in days. I guess my body just wasn't used to getting that little sleep after 3 months of summer break. I'm a sophomore in College and I kinda left some drama back home. My boyfriend Jessie - well, ex-boyfriend would fit better now I guess - cheated on me and I broke up with him. He tried everything to get me back but I blew him off which didn't go that well with his ego so he spread some ugly rumors about me and of course everybody believed him. Jessie is the golden boy, quarterback in our football team, he has good grades and he would never do any arm. At least that's what everyone thinks of him. If they only knew. So now everybody thinks I'm the school's super slut. Really great, exactly the repuation I wanted this year.  
Anyway, I spent the summer at my dad's place in New York. I enjoyed my time there because, honestly, who doesn't love New York? Shopping, cute boys and the Central Park right around the corner! I also got to spent a lot of time with my dad, Abe, and our relationship is finally getting better. You have to know that I didn't met him until I was a teenager because my mom never wanted me to have any contact with him. It's a pretty long story but this isn't the time and place telling you it. Maybe, if you stick around, you'll find out everything later on.  
By the way, my name is Rose Hathaway. I am 19 years old, located in Los Angeles and today is my first day of college. Hell, have I missed this place! Well, mostly the people but we don't want to be fussy here.

One last look at the mirror and I was ready for my first day. I picked out a nice summer dress, some jewlery and a pair of ballerinas. My long brown hair falls curly around my shoulders and I wear just enough make up for it to still look natural. Not gonna lie, I liked what I saw in the mirror and I know that the boys did too. However, I enjoyed being single and, unlike many of my friends, not having boy trouble for once.  
Good thing I live on campus so I don't have to worry about catching the bus everyday. My roommate, Lissa, isn't here yet because her classes don't start until next week. She's still in Europe, doing who knows what with her boyfriend Christian.  
I took a look around campus. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining which made the old buildings even more pretty than usual. ' I could've had it worse', I thought.  
I walked down the halls when I heard a familiar voice calling my name followed by running steps.

"Hey, Rose!" she shouted.

I turned around and saw one of my closest friends, Caroline Becket. She had a big smile on her face and her big blue eyes lid up when she looked at me. I opened my arms and hugged her tightly.

"Girl, it's good to see you after three months of absence. How have you been? Your hair seems blonder than ever. How was Mexico?", I said while we started walking towards class.

"Oh you know, Mexico was great as always. I met this guy called Julio who was such a gentleman. Turned out he had a pregnant girlfriend at home so I don't think we'll keep in touch." She was so bubbly, it was adorable. I let out a short laugh and opened the door to our class room.

"On the other, my mum found out that dad is doing the housekeeper. They're back in therapy now to 'save their marriage' so nothing's really changed.", she joked. Her parents wanted to get a divorce for ages but somehow they always pulled themselves together and worked things out; it's a miracle, really.  
We choose two seats at the end of the room so we'd have enough time to update each other on our summer adventures. The first lesson wasn't important anyway.

"Anyway, have you heard the big news already?", Caroline asked me excitedly. I felt like if she wouldn't tell me these information right away her head would explode because it can't cope with that kind of information, she _always_ has to tell someone.

"No, I haven't. Jeez, it's our first day and you're the first person I spoke to today. Where should I've heard anything? What is it?" I said slightly annoyed. She always made a big fuss about everything. These 'news' better be good.

"Well, we're getting a new student. His name is Adrian Ivashkov."

"Woah, wait! Ivashkov as in headmaster Ivashkov!?" I asked totally confused.

"Exactly as in headmaster Ivashkov. His son, to be precise. He's 21 years old, got kicked out of Brown and that's only the most recent college he had to leave. Troubled partyboy, loves to drink and _loves_ girls. Rumour has it that he is here now so his dad can control him, which is understandable if you ask me. Obviously he's repeating this year. I haven't seen him yet but Camille from my English class said he's totally hot!"

"I don't even want to know who you had to murder for these information." I smile. Teasing her can be so much fun sometimes. But she doesn't even hear me because in that moment he walks into the room. From the look on Caroline's face it can only be him. I have to admit, he _is _really hot. Lean built, messy out-of-bed hair and jade eyes that are piercing through the room. 'No boy trouble, Rose!' I need to remind myself. From what Caroline told me he probably is a total dickhead anyway and I wanted to stay off the radar this year, just because I had to go through so much shit last year with Jessie. 'Don't think about him, he's just ruining your perfect first day.' I tell myself. Good thing I have other things to do, like keeping my girlfriend from fainting.

"Calm down, he's not even that special." I try to assure her.

"Rose, have you actually _looked_ at him?! He looks like a freaking sculpture." she says in a hysterical voice. We can't go on because our teacher walks in and starts talking about god knows what. I really don't have the energy to listen to him right now.  
And as I know Caroline her little crush would be gone by tomorrow and we could all go back to normal. When was the last time I even had normal? I miss normal. Normal sounds good. Normal sounds like not-getting-in-trouble-for-once. Normal sounds like leaving the old shit behind and starting a new life. New year, new Rose. That sounded good.


	2. Girl's night

I was laying in my bed, laptop on the one, textbook on the other side. Can you believe that I already had to do homework on the _first _day? I try to find a more comfortable position but that doesn't work that well because I always get uncomfy after another ten minutes.  
I totally needed a break, that's why I was happy when my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID; it's Caroline. I answer the phone.  
"Hey Car, what's up?" I say.

"I'm just wondering if you are free this evening?" she asks.

"Hm well, I need to get this paper done until the end of the week and I don't make any progress but I feel like I won't be very productive today anyway so yes, I'm free. Why?", I ask because I know that Caroline has always something planned.

"I might or might not have tickets for this kickass club tonight. At least I heard it's kickass. Are you in? We haven't had a lady's night in ages so I thought that's totally what we need! College is totally stressing me out!" she says so fast it's hard for me to follow her. I thought about her offer for a few seconds and then decided that I was in. We made out a time and place were we'd meet and then I hung up.

It took me some time to choose a perfect piece of clothing but I ended up with a short red cocktail dress which goes nice with my long brown hair. Although I'm not on a boy hunt tonight I still like to look good.

I took a cap and headed to the club, where we agreed to meet. When I got out I could feel the wind on my skin. It was a clear night, so clear that you could see the stars. I waited another ten minutes and then Caroline finally showed up. (She's always late, tzz.)

"So sorry I'm late, I didn't know what to wear!" she apologized.

"Yeah, I had the same problem." She looked amazing though. She wore skinny jeans, black peeptoes and a really pretty babydoll top. I have to admit, we looked hot and that's probably one of the reasons why we didn't have any problems with the doorman and got in.  
The music wasn't really my taste but Caroline liked it so we danced anyway. I actually had a lot of fun until I looked around and found Jessie standing near the boxes and looking over to us.

"I can't believe that dick is here!" I yelled out.

"What? Who is where?" Caroline asked confused.

"Jessie! Over there!" I shouted over the loud music and pointed to where he was standing. To my surprise (well not really) Adrian Ivashkov was also standing with him. Just the kind of people I expected him to hang out with actually.

"I'm so sorry hun. We can move clubs if you want to get away from him?" she asked. It was nice that she was so sensitive but this was _our_ night and I wouldn't let him ruin it.

"No, it's fine. I'll get us some drinks okay?" I said and then I walked over to the bar. Caroline would be okay if she's a few minutes without me, she never had problems to find company and after a little while I already saw her dancing with a guy. I ordered a long island iced tea and enjoyed these minutes on my own. All of sudden I felt a grip on my hip and saw someone sitting next to me. I turned my head and looked into familiar eyes. Adrian Ivashkov.

"Hello beautiful. You're Rose Hathaway right? I've heard a lot about you." He grinned at me.  
He's here with Jessie, I don't even want to know what he's heard.  
I took another sip from my glass and said "I bet you did. What do you want?"  
"Why so mean? Can't a guy just come over to a pretty girl and invite her for a drink? What would you like to have?" he said, still grinning. I wasn't in flirting mood and I definetely wasn't in flirting mood with someone who was friends with Jessie.

"Listen Ivashkov", I started, "I know everything about you. Troubled party boy, daddy doesn't trust you so now you're stuck here. You party every day with different people and take home another girl every night. Of course you never take the girl with you, you always go with her so you can escape the morning after and you never have to see her again. Just for your information: I'm not the girl you think I am and I'm definetely not gonna be the girl that you can leave tomorrow while I'm still naked in bed.", He looked quite puzzled by now, to be honest. "I hope you'll find what you were looking for tonight but that something won't be me. Good night, Adrian." I said, emptied my glass, took my purse and left him there, sitting alone. I guess he wasn't used to getting rejected by girls. Well, there's a first time for everything and my departure was classical, just like the movies. I was quite proud of myself if I may say that.


	3. A project gone wrong

The next day I woke up feeling like a train ran over me. It's not like I drank too much - I only drank that one cocktail, pinky swear - but we stayed in the club until 4AM. Getting up for college after only two hours of sleep felt like the hardest thing I have ever done. The fact that I had PE in the first period made things only worse.  
I arrived a bit too late but at least I was already in my sports wear. Caroline waved at me and I ran over to her. How she had such a good mood at this time of the day was beyond me. We had to run 2 miles, normally not a problem for me because I was good at PE but not today. Nevertheless Caroline and I started running next to each other on our highway to hell.

"I am way too tired to run this long on a Tuesday morning.", I said out of breath. Wow, I was already exhausted, I guess the summer break wasn't that good for my condition.

"I know but we just have to get through with it and then we have history. I can't wait to see with whom I'm in the project.", Caroline said to me. We have to do a project for our history class and today is the day where we find out who is in our group. Group is probably the wrong word because there are only two people in every group. I was actually hoping that Caroline and I could be in a group because I like working with her but we're on our teacher's radar so the odds are not in our favor.

After PE was finally over we showered and got ready for history. The first people I spotted when we entered the room were Jessie and Adrian. Great, he's not really the first person I wanted to see after last night. Just then I realized that both of them weren't at PE, who knows when they got home yesterday. When I walked by I could see that Adrian was winking at me. What the hell was his problem? Couldn't he deal with the fact that I was the only girl who didn't fall head over heels for him and now he had to try it all over again until I finally gave in? Well, I hate to crush his dreams but that's not going to happen in this lifetime. In the middle of my inner monologue I stopped myself. Why did I even care so much? "_Because he's exactly how you used to be last year_", a tiny voice in the back of my head whispered.

"- though I'm not sure. Rose? Hello, are you still here?", Caroline snatched me out of my thoughts. We walked to our usual seats at the back of the room.

"Sorry, what did you say?", I asked. But she didn't have a chance to answer me because our history teacher walked in and started immediately with naming the groups and topics for the project. Hannah and Max, Laura and Kate and so on.

"Caroline and Mia", he announced.

"Good God, no.", Caroline mumbled. We had some backstory with Mia and let's put it that way, we kinda didn't like her because she's constantly after the boys we're dating. Well, she's after every boy but she prefers the once we're dating just to piss us off, which, I have to admit, works most of the time. She turned around and didn't look so pleased either.

I tried to comfort Caroline "Just don't play any of her games, get the work done and then -"

"Rose and Adrian."

For a moment I wasn't sure if I heard it right but I did.

"You've got to be kidding me", I said shaking my head in disbelief. Can you believe my luck? I had to work with the one person I wanted to stay the most far away from.

"At least you don't have to work with the personification of evil", Caroline joked.

Our teacher wanted us to get together in our groups now to discuss our topic and the schedule for the following week. Our topic was the ancient greek. I wished Caroline good luck before she left her seat which was taken by Adrian a few seconds later.

"Well well, looks like fate is bringing us back together after all. That's gotta mean something right?" he said with a dashing smile.

"I wouldn't go this far." I can't believe he's already flirting with me again. He took out a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. He handed me the paper and said

"Here's my adress and my number. I suggest we start tonight at my place. I can't wait for all the hot and steamy fun we're going to have."

"There's nothing hot and steamy about the ancient greek", I tried to counter.

"Oh, you'll be surprised, beautiful. See you later."

The smile was still on his face when he left.


	4. Stop Staring

Later that day I packed my bag and got on my way to Adrian. I took my laptop and some notes, how much more could I need?  
It took me a while to get to Adrian's house because he didn't live on campus like I do but when I arrived I couldn't believe my eyes. I don't know what I expected but it certainly wasn't _this_.

The house looked like a freaking palace. It was made out of these old stones you often see in castles from the 18th century. "This must have cost a fortune", I thought while entering the gate. I didn't know that his father earned so much as a headmaster but on the other hand I don't know what his mother does for a living. The mansion was surrounded by a huge garden with tons of roses and other flowers I didn't know the name of. Before the enormous door was a long drive-up. After I admired the place long enough I walked up. Just as I almost reached the doors a girl came out of it. She had long blond hair which were the kind of straight I had to spent hours in the bathroom for. She seemed to be younger than me but I didn't have any more time to look at her because she rushed past me without paying attention to me; she was in a hurry obviously. When I reached the doors I knocked and Adrian almost immediately opened.

"Are you back for round tw - oh Rose, hi. I didn't expect you so early." he said a bit confused. I looked down and saw that he didn't wear much. Actually he didn't wear anything besides some boxershorts. His hair was messy as always and his chest - oh his chest. He wasn't bulked up or something but you could see that he did some sport because he had a fine sixpack. My gaze wandered further down to his happy trail and in this moment I really hated that he wore shorts. I wanted to explore the rest of this body, I wanted to explore everything. I took a deep breath. "Concentrate, Rose. Just concentrate. And stop gaping at him, it's getting creepy" I thought.

"I - um, I think you said 7PM?" I stuttered. He thought about it for a moment and then decided that I was probably right.

"Hm I did? Whatever, come in." He gestured inside the house and I stepped in. It was even more beautiful on the inside than it was on the outside. He walked before me and I followed him upstairs to his room.

"I'm sorry, my room is a bit of a mess. I didn't have time to tidy up." he apologized.

I looked at the used sheets on his kingsize bad and snaped out of my hazy gace; I remembered my encounter with the girl outside.

"Oh right, the 12 year old you are doing. I saw her oustide. She seemed to be a bit bewildered if I might add." I didn't plan to sound that judgy but sometimes I just talk before I think. Why am I acting like this? I don't even like him. At least not much.

"I tend to have this affect on women. And actually, she's 18. At least that's what she told me." he smirked.

I decided to ignore his comment. "We should get started now".

For the next two hours we rolled books, read every wikipedia article and used every information about the ancient greek we could get our hands on. It was pretty uneventful to be honest. Now that we had the materials that we needed for our presentation we decided that we did enough of work today and agreed to meet two days from now again.  
On the bus home I recapped the day. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Was it possible that Adrian Ivashkov and me actually make a good team?


	5. A storm is coming

"_Good Morning Los Angeles, don't forget your rain coats today because there is a storm coming! We will update you all day long. Radio 4 wishes you a nice day and here is Sandy with the breaking news_." I turned off the radio, grabbed my umbrella (just in case the meteorologists are right once) and rushed out of the door. I wasn't late but I wanted to meet Lissa before class started. She arrived in the middle of the night and stayed at Christian's place overnight because it was closer to the airport than our dorm. I was so excited to finally see her again after all this time. We decided to meet at college. I ran down the long corridor and then I saw her. She was listening to music, lost in thoughts, her green eyes staring into the empty space. A pickly feeling started in my belly and I began to smile widly.

"Hey Lissa!", I shouted. She turned her head, saw me and also started smiling. She gave me a big bear hug. "I've missed you so much" she rejoiced.  
"How was Europe? Did you paint the town red?" I asked eagerly. We started walking to our first class while she told me about all the fun she had in Paris, Rome and Berlin. It sounded like a different world to me. On our way we met Caroline and after a lot of hugging and kissing and 'welcome back' we took our seats. Glady, we still had some time until the teacher arrived.

"So what boy drama did I miss?" Lissa asked.

"Nothing really. I've been a good girl all holidays long!." I replied. Caroline gave me a knowing look.

"What's going on here? What are you not telling me!?" Lissa begged. Caroline apparently felt the need to speak in my position.

"Well, we have this new guy here, Adrian Ivashkov, he is a total heartthrob and Rose has to work with him for the history project. They spent the entire evening together yesterday -"

"- and nothing happened for God's sake!" I tried to interrupt.

"- and today they'll carry on. She's really into him, I can tell by the way she constantly complains about him." Caroline giggled.

"I do not!" I exclaimed. Lissa seemed to find this all very amusing.

"Oh you totally do sweetie." Caroline said. "Just admit it already, you like him, there's nothing wrong with it."

"He's not the complete arse I thought he would be. That's actually all I can say about him right now. I don't even know him okay!" With that I ended the conversation because I don't like talking about my feelings especially when I'm not even sure how _I_ feel.

Later that day I was on my way to Adrian once again. I hope we can finish our presentation tonight. By now the rain was pouring and I was grateful that I took it with me although the only dry part was my head. The wind was blowing the rain everywhere so I looked like a wet sack when I arrived at Adrian's. I knocked and he almost immediately opened the door.

"Wow, what happened to you?" He sounded more amused than worried but whatever.

"I just assume that you haven't left your house all day or looked out of the window to see that the freaking apocalypse has started." I haven't seen him in any of my classes today so that might actually be true. I stepped in, took of my wet jacket and left it together with my umbrella next to the door.

When we arrived at his room he asked "Do you want to take off your clothes?".

"WHAT?" I called. He laughed and said "Your clothes are all wet. Do you want to change? I could give you some dry clothes of mine if you want." . That's what he meant. Great, Rose, you just acted like a complete idiot. If it goes on like this it will be a funny evening.

"Uhm, yes, that would be nice." I murmured. He walked over to his closet and picked a wide T-shirt and some sweatpants. He handed them over me and waited. He looked me in the eyes and a smirk spread on his face. After a few moments I understood why he was waiting.

"Oh no, that's not going to happen. Turn around." I ordered. He did as I told him so I could finally change into something comfortable and most importantly, something dry.

The hours passed while we finished our project and listened to the radio. When I looked out of the window all I could see was rain. A lot of rain.

"Not the weather we're used here right?" Adrian asked. Just in that moment we heard a loud thunder followed by a light bolt.

"- _that were Imagine Dragons with Radioactive and here's Carly with the weather. How is it going Carly?  
Well, Paul, one of the worst thunderstorms in the history of our city has almost reached the town. We highly suggest everyone to stay inside. Don't leave your house if it's not completely necessary!"_

"No, not really. It's getting kinda scary actually. I hope I'll get home alive" I answered, my glance still directed at the garden which turned into a mess of mudd. I guess all the years of sunshine and perfectly fine weather turned me into a shrinking violet.

"Don't be silly, just stay here overnight. You can't go oustide, you've heard what they're saying." Adrian insisted. Spending the night with Adrian? Oh dear God, where is that supposed to end?

"That's really nice but I have to decline. I mean, I have to be at my dorm before, ugh, Lissa gets worried and, ugh, it's just not possible." Wow, my lying is so bad. But what should I've said instead? _'Sorry, I'm afraid that we'll end up ripping off our clothes and doing things with each other that I'll probably regret later on.' _Surely not.

"Just call her and say you're staying here. She'll understand it, I'm sure." When I gave him an unsure look he added "It's no problem, really." So I took my phone and dialed her number. To my surprise the line was dead.

"I guess the storm already cut some telephone towers, I'm not coming through. But okay, you won. I stay here under one condition: If you touch me you are dead." No need to mention that I just want to save myself from a big mistake. He laughed and said "That's actually the first time a girl said that to me but I guess there's a first time for everything right?" he winked. Oh I wish he would stop with that, it's making me feel a range of mixed emotions.

Adrian excused himself because he wanted to get us something to drink. After a few minutes he came back with a bunch of different alcohol.

"You wanna get me drunk now because I don't fall for you charm?" I teased. That got me a little smile from him. "So you admit that my charm is hard to resist? But coming back to the first part of your question: No, I don't want to do that. I'm not that kind of guy. I just know that I won't survive this day if I don't get wasted tonight." Woah, where is this sudden change of tone coming from? He took the alcohol and takes the place next to me, under the window so we don't have to watch the world ending. "Bad day huh?" I asked.  
"You could say so." He opened the wodka bottle and took a sip.  
"May I ask what is going on?" I wasn't sure if I'd get an answer to this but it was worth a try.  
"Uhm, well I have some problems with my dad. He's not the nice guy everyone things he is in college. I - I normally don't talk about this." His voice broke a bit  
"That's okay. You don't have to if you don't want to. Is that the reason you weren't in any classes today?" He nodded.  
Huh, who would've thought that he wasn't there because of personal problems and not because his hangover was so bad that he couldn't get of bed?

Just in that moment as I wanted to say something else the lights started flickering and then went off completely.  
"Absolutely fucking fantastic." Adrian murmured.  
"That's...not good. Do you know where your feeder pillar is? Maybe a wire went out" I worried.  
"Rose, in all honesty, do I look like I have any idea where the feeder pillar is? I don't do the dirty work." I looked him in the eyes and smiled. In that moment I just wanted to make him feel good and less hurt but I didn't know what to say. Eventually I ended up with  
"You're not that bad, Ivashkov. If I wouldn't know it any better I'd say you're one of the good guys."  
"You'd be surprised, Hathaway." he said.  
Before any of us could say something else we both fell asleep to the sound of the pourring rain.

* * *

Happy Holidays to all of you. I hope you're having a wonderful time!


	6. Let's talk about sex

A loud thunder woke me up. As I tried to move my head I realized that my neck was extremely stiff because I slept on Adrian's shoulder. I looked over to him and saw that he was still sleeping, his eyelids flickering sometimes probably because of a rough dream. I stood up and my whole body felt like I've been sleeping on rocks. Note to myself: Never sleep on the floor again or, which is more fitting in my case, never sleep _on_ Adrian Ivashkov again.  
Not trying to make much noise I sneaked out of the door and walked down the stairs into the huge kitchen. I'm not kidding when I say that the alone the kitchen was twice the size of my own room. After searching for a glass in several cupboards I finally found one and poured some water in it. Oh, how wonderful the water felt in my mouth. I didn't realize until now how thirsty how was.  
When I looked at the clock on the wall I wasn't surprised that it was still very early, 5AM. I didn't know how long the storm was supposed to last so I decided to get some food. I opened the fridge to see if there was anything eatable in it.

"Damn, these sweatpants really suit you better than me." A voice behind me said. Surprised, I jerked around just to see Adrian. He was leaning at the door, his arms crossed in front of his chest. His mouth formed a wide smile.

"I didn't mean to scare you." he affirmed. What kind of reaction did he expect? I thought he was still sleeping and I was alone in the kitchen.

"It's okay." For a moment we stood there in awkward silence. "So, where are your parents anyway?" I asked.

"Out. I think they're staying at a friend's place but I really don't want to talk about my parents right now." He took some long steps and walked over to where I was standing. He was so close now that I could feel his breath on my face. Woah, okay, what the hell is going on!?

"No? What do you want to do instead?" I asked although I already knew the answer. I looked into his eyes and they gleamed with joy.

"Actually..." the sentence kept hanging in the air. He took his hand and stroke over my cheek. "I'd really like to kiss you right now." By now, there was barely any space left between us.  
"Then why don't you do it?" My voice was barely a whisper. My mind knew that this was all kinds of wrong. My mind knew that if I let myself getting involved with Adrian everything would change. My mind knew that he was trouble. But right now my body was in control. And my body wanted him. My body didn't care about the consequences, it just wanted to fulfil the desire that has been burning in me since quite some time.

When his lips touched mine I felt a spark going through my body. He touched my face while his kisses got more eager. I opened my mouth so I could let him have the full control of...whatever this was. He still tasted of vodka from last night but I didn't care, I just wanted to get lost in this kiss. After another deep kiss he stopped for a second.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted this" he said out of breath. He continued planting kisses on my mouth, cheek and then he went down my neck and collarbone. I let out a short moan. Meanwhile his hands found their way under my shirt and he was pushing me closer so that I could feel his entire body against mine.  
"We should continue this upstairs." he whispered next to my ear. When I could look him into his eyes again they were filled with passion and desire. Adrian took my hand and we went upstairs. When we arrived in his room he continued kissing me and slowly, we layed down on his bed. My hands went under his shirt and began discovering his body. Oh what a wonderful feeling. In one fast movement he got rid of his shirt and I could continue touching him. Since the day I first saw him shirtless I wanted to run my fingers along his chest.

"God, Rose, you are so beautiful" he said while he fumbled with the seam of my, well actually it's his, shirt. He took it off of me and then I was laying there in my bra while Adrian continued spreading kisses along my breasts and down my belly. While I was laying there and enjoying what Adrian did, I wondered how many other girls have already fallen for his charm, how many other girls he has seduced in his bed. I didn't want to think about this now but I couldn't help it. I didn't want to be such a girl for him, I wanted to be more than that. _'But you never will be' _a voice inside me whispered. I decided to ignore my subconious because last night I've seen a part of Adrian that changed my picture of him. He had problems like everyone, problems I probably didn't even know of, but deep down inside I knew that he was actually a _good_ person. And I wanted to get to know this person better before I sleep with him. Sex ruins things, hell it did ruin everything in my relationship with Jessie. Our first time was way too early and then our relationship basically only consisted of sex. I knew stopping this would be the right thing to do.

When Adrian was done pleasing my belly and breasts he gave me a deep, longing kiss while his hands wandered to the back of my bra. Just before he could undo my bra I said "Wait." My voice sounded husky from all the kissing. He stopped and looked at me. His expression showed me that he was pretty confused.

"Why, is something wrong?" he asked.

"I just think we shouldn't rush things between us." I explained.

"You're not a virgin, are you?" he wondered. I didn't know if that would actually make him happy or not.

I had to laugh. "No, I'm not. But that's the point, we don't know anything about each other."

"Well, I know that you have a birthmark next to your belly button. I guess most people don't know that right?" he joked. I took the pillow next to me and threw it at him which got me a crocked smile.

"You know that's not what I mean. Can't we just lay here and talk until the storm is over?" I suggested.

"Only if you put back on your shirt. I don't know how much talking I can do if you're just sitting there in your underwear." I grabbed my shirt, put it back on and watched him doing the same thing. He reached over to the little table next to his bed and light a cigarette. He inhaled a drag.

"How was your first time then?" he asked. That's the thing he wants to talk about?

"Uhm okay, let's see. I was 17 and it happened with my first boyfriend, Dan. It was horrible, he was clumsy and it hurt a lot. We broke up short after it and I actually wished I had waited longer. I wanted it to be with someone special and not with someone who ended up hurting me, you know? Anyway, how about you, womanizer?" I turned on to my side so I could watch his face. He really had some pretty eyes with that piercing green that seemed to look right into my soul.

He smiled. "I was 16 and it happened at a party with a friend who I've known since forever. We were both pretty drunk. Let's put it that way: Sex got a lot better after that."

"I bet it did." I said. I moved closer to Adrian and placed my head on his chest. His arms entwined around me and I snuggled deeper into his shirt. I could still smell the faint aroma of his aftershave.

"I wish we could stay like this forever." I longily said.

"We still have a few hours until the real world has us back." He planted a kiss on my head. "Let's enjoy it." I could feel his steady breathing underneath me.

And so we did. We layed there until the sun came up, believing that no one could ever take this away from us.

Oh how wrong we were.

* * *

_I hope you're enjoying this so far! Thanks for the lovely feedback._


	7. Rumour has it

The next day in school I was nervous about seeing Adrian again. How should I react? I mean, we made out and shared a night together but that doesn't necessarily mean that we are together now right? You could never be sure with a man like Adrian Ivashkov. I would just wait and see if he does anything, that way I won't embarass myself which happened way too often in the last couple of days.  
On my way to my first class I saw him in the corner with his friends (of course Jessie was among them, why is he still hanging out with him!?) smoking a cigarette. I looked at him and after a few seconds he noticed me. He smirked and nodded in my direction.

"That's it? He just nodded at you?" Lissa asked during our economy class.  
"Yes and it's not big deal. I didn't expect him to kiss me and tell the whole world that we share a magic bond and are a couple now." Or did I?  
"What kind of nod was it? Was it the 'Hey, Hathaway what's up'-nod or was it more of a 'I want to continue what happened yesterday' nod? " Caroline wanted to know eagerly. The second one. Definitely the second one.  
"Gosh Care, I am NOT overanalyzing this okay? He has his own life and I have mine and if he's not the type for casual dating then that's fine."  
"You're not gonna be his booty call aren't you?" Lissa wondered. Something like that had to come from her, she was always so worried about me and my feelings.  
"God no! I won't let him treat me like this." I cried out.  
When the class was over I headed in the direction of the library because I still needed some books for my homework. First, everything seemed normal but then I noticed that people were looking at me, whispering with their neighbour.  
'screwing everyone on this campus.'  
'Adrian's new toy'  
'couldn't take long until she found a new one'  
Oh no, this wasn't happening. Not again. Despite the fact that half of it wasn't true, how could they know? I only told Lissa and Caroline and they would never spread rumours and Adrian... What the hell did he tell his friends?  
A loud familiar voice ripped me from my thoughs. "I heard they were doing it in several different positions last night and she just couldn't get enough so she gave him a blow job in the mens room right before the first class started. What a slut." Mia Rinaldi. She saw me coming down the hallway, she wanted me to hear those things. I walked up to her. Time to show her that you better not have Rose Hathaway as your enemy.  
"What the fuck is your problem?" I said as fiercly as I could.  
She looked at me with her big doll eyes like she could do nothing wrong. "Uhm, I don't know. You?"  
Enough was enough. I pushed her against the wall and brought my lips to her ear. "Leave me alone or I will make your life miserable. I will destroy you even if it's the last thing I do." No need for her to know that these were more or less empty threats because I have nothing in hand against her. She didn't seem to notice that though. As I let go of her she actually looked a bit intimidated.  
I was in such a rage that Adrian was the next on my list. If all of this was his fault then God better help him. After some time I found him coming out of the men's restroom. Using both of my hands I hit him hard in the chest hoping that it would affect him.  
"What the hell was that for!?" He looked at me in shock.  
"You know what that was for!" I almost screamed.  
"No, I don't for fucks sake. Will you enlighten me?" He asked confused.  
"Everybody is talking about us having sex and they say what a big slut I am. So thanks for that asshole!"  
"Wait, what!? I never said that we did it to anyone. When Jessie asked - "  
"You freaking told Jessie!?" I couldn't believe he was still friends with the one person I hated the most. "That explains a lot actually. I can't believe you told him. Him, of all people! You know what, Adrian? Just fuck off!" I exclaimed. He should have known better. I left him standing there with a speechless look on his face and went home.

_The same evening_

After I did all the neccessary college work I finally went to bed but I couldn't fall asleep. My mind was still processing what happened earlier. Maybe Adrian had honest intentions and thought Jessie is a good friend. Well, technically Adrian is coming out of this whole rumour mess pretty good, I was the target of Jessie's hate. I just wish he would finally let go of the past and let me live my life. Was I being unfair to Adrian? Probably. I let my emotions control what I did and that's never good when I'm in rage. Nevertheless it wasn't right that he went around bragging with what we did... After an eternity I fell asleep but I had rough dreams. I moved around, trying to get out of these nightmares which ended up me being in a awake/sleep coma.  
A loud knock pulled me out of my sleep. I looked at my cell phone. 4 AM. What the hell?  
"Rose!" Was that...Adrian!?  
"Rose, please open up!" He knocked again. Oh God, is he serious!? I got out of bed and made my way across my room to the door. I opened it and found...Adrian sitting on the floor.  
"Adrian what are you doing on the floor?" I wanted to know.  
"I need to talk to you because - wow you look really pretty. Do you always look so pretty when you wake up?" he rambled.  
"Are you drunk?" I took a closer look at him. "And is that a black eye?" I decided to help him up and continue the conversation in my room before the whole dorm knows what's happening here. Easier said than done.  
"Nah, I just took a bit of LSD and oh wait, maybe I had a drink...or two." he said while we stumbled into my room. He couldn't be serious. I didn't want to have any kind of conversation with him while he was like this.  
"C'mon, you should have a little bit of sleep until you're sober." I suggested while I let him fall into my bed.  
"But tomorrow we talk yeah?" he mumbled and his eyes grew tired until he was asleep.  
"Oh yes, tomorrow we will definitely talk. You have some explaining to do Ivashkov." I said although I knew he couldn't hear me anymore.


	8. An explanation

I tried to fall asleep again but it was kind of hard considering Adrian beside me. He moved around all night or more what was left of it and almost pushed me out of my own bed. At 8am I had enough and got up. Gosh, I'm definitely not a morning person so I went to the kitchen and made some coffee.  
I took the cup and my cell phone and sat on my couch. Now seemed to be the perfect time to text Lissa. I knew she would be up that early on a saturday because in contrary to me she actually had more plans than staying in bed all day.

"You don't believe who showed up at my doorstep last night totally drunk (and I literally mea 4AM!) ADRIAN"  
Just as I predicted I received a reply almost immediately.  
"What, why? "  
"Dunno yet, I will update you when I know more."

Just when I hit sent I heard a loud groan behind me followed by "Is that coffee I smell?" His voice sounded rusky. I turned around to take a look at him and I wasn't surprised when I saw that he looked as shit as his voice sounded. His hair was messy and not in his normally messy styled way. His black eye looked worse than it did only a few hours ago. He had dark circles under his eyes.  
"Yes it is. Do you want some?" I asked.  
He nodded. "That would be nice." I poured some coffee in a cup and handed it to him. After he took a sip he looked at me.  
"I'm so sorry for what happened last night", he apologized. "I didn't plan on violating your sleep. It's just, I -" he paused, obviously thinking about what to say next "I had a pretty rough evening yesterday and I didn't know where I to go so I landed on your doorstep." I figured out that much by mysel.  
"You wanna talk about what happened?" I suggested.  
"Yeah, well you have to know that my dad is a pretty huge asshole and my parents had one of their fights again and when I came home I heard my mom screaming that she would leave him this time for good and then he slaped her. Can you believe that? He slaped her right across the face. I went between them, telling my dad that he couldn't treat her like this and then-"  
"You punched him?" I interupted. He let out a short laugh.  
"Yes, I did but I'm not the best figther so I couldn't get out of the way in time and you see where playing the hero got me." He pointed at his black eye.  
"Oh Adrian, you weren't playing the hero. You did what was the right thing to do in that situation. How is your mum doing, is she okay?" I asked.  
"I guess." He sighed. "Honestly, I don't know. She's staying at a friends place right now and I feel like this wasn't the first time that he did that to her. She often had bruises but she always found excuses. Fuck, how could I've been so stupid? Tell me, Rose, why haven't I noticed it before?" He sounded so incredibly sad so without further thinking I hugged him.  
"It's not your fault. The best you can do now is stand by your mothers side." I said. He ended the hug and looked me in the eyes.  
"Thanks Rose. For everything."  
I smiled. "That's what friends are for right?" Before I could even say anything else I felt his sweet lips on my mouth. After being surprised for a moment I gave in. He deepened the kiss and when he drawed breath he blurt out "Do you wanna go the dance with me?" I watched him to see if he was serious. The annual dance was hosted by our college and it was always wonderful, everybody was going and everybody would know with _whom_ you were going. Did this mean he wanted to take this - whatever this was - to the next level?  
"Yes, I'd love to" I grinned and kissed him again.


	9. The beginning of a big night

"I like the black one better", I said as Lissa showed me another dress. The dance was tonight and she still hasn't decided on what dress to wear. She made a spin in the green dress she was currently wearing. "Definitely the black one. I'm sure Christian will prefer the black one too", I winked.  
"Okay, then I will go with the black one. Thanks for helping me, Rose. I hope we'll have a great night!" she said. I hoped so too. Since Adrian asked me to the dance two days ago we only briefly texted and I was kinda nervous about this evening. I wanted this night to mean something, _I _wanted to mean something to him, at least more than just a fling.

After we decided on what hair and make up she should wear tonight I left Lissa because I still had to get ready too. It was already late when I arrived at my room which meant I had to hurry up a bit, I expected Adrian at 10.  
I put on my red dress and curled my hair so it fell losely over my shoulders. Just when I was done with my make up I heard a knock on the door. I opened the door and of course it was Adrian, perfectly in time. He wore a dark blue suit and if I'd have to describe him with one word right now it would be dashing. He looked up and said "Wow, you look beautiful." I blushed a bit because his compliment actually sounded genuine. I heard from so many boys that I was 'hot' but I knew that they only meant my looks. It was different with Adrian. The way he said it made me feel like he was not only referring to my body but also to my soul.  
I gave him a short kiss and smiled. "Same goes to you, handsome. Let's go." He took my hand and lead me to his car. I'm not big on cars but it was a very nice modell. We got in and he put on some music I've never heard of before.  
"So how are things with your parents going?" I asked.  
He looked at me for a moment. "My mum's still not talking to him, I try to avoid him as much as I can but let's talk about something so pleasant tonight okay? This is supposed be our night."  
I nodded "You're right, let's make the best out of this night."  
And so we did.


End file.
